Up-to-the-minute advice, information, resources, and, on occasion, commentary on federal and New Jersey state income taxes, and the various New Jersey property tax rebate programs, and insights and observations on tax policy and professional tax practice, by 40-year veteran tax professional Robert D Flach.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

ANYTHING BUT TAXES - LAW AND ORDER BITES DUST

It has been a while since I wrote an “Anything But Taxes” post. Here goes -

I just heard that “Law and Order” has been cancelled.

A fellow tax professional twit has told me that “Law and Order” will tie “Gunsmoke” for the longest-running television show – with 20 seasons each. He tells me that in terms of number of episodes “Gunsmoke” beats L and O – with about 200 more over the 20-year period. But from 1955-1961 “Gunsmoke” was a 30-minute show, expanding to an hour in Sept, 1961 – so when it comes to hours of episodes the race is closer.

Creator Dick Wolfe explained how the concept of the original “Law and Order” – first half “law” (police capturing the “perp”) and second half “order” (the trial) - came to be in a tv interview a while back.

Successful broadcast television shows can make lots of money in “syndication”, often more than the original production. Some shows have been known to operate at a loss on the initial broadcast episodes (they cost more to make than the network pays for airing) just to be able to create a sufficient syndication “inventory”. As one online explanation of the process put it – “If you can get a television show in syndication, you can live off that money for the rest of your life.”

Some 20+ years ago it was easier, and probably more profitable, to syndicate a half-hour series than it was an hour-long program. But the networks were looking for hour-long drama series. The “Law and Order” format – basically a half hour of police and a half hour of lawyers - was essentially created so it could be run as two-part half-hour episodes in syndication.

Dick and company had toyed with several such two-part shows, with names like Night and Day.

As it turns out DW did not have to worry about creating half-hour segments for syndication. I expect that the L+O franchise is the most syndicated in history, and that every hour of every day an episode of L+O or one of its spin-offs is running somewhere in the world.

Actually the idea of half police procedural and half courtroom drama was not new to television. “Arrest and Trial” was a 90-minute series that aired one season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10:00 pm during the 1963-64 season.

According to Wikipedia –

“Each week's program was actually two 45-minute segments. The first segment followed Sgt. Nick Anderson (Ben Gazzara) of the LAPD as he tracked down and apprehended a criminal. The person Anderson arrested was defended in the second half of the show by criminal attorney John Egan (Chuck Connors).”

You will note that it differed from L+O in that it took place in LA and the trial portion was presented from the defense point of view and not the prosecution.

Episodes of A+T are available on DVD. I watched several earlier this year via my Netflix subscription.

Coincidently, Dick Wolfe used the title “Arrest and Trial” for a short-lived 30-minute syndicated “docudrama” hosted by Brian Dennehy in 2000. The show followed individual criminal cases (commission, police investigation, and actual trial) via a combination of reenactments and real trial footage.

As a bit of side trivia - "Arrest and Trial" became the first American import to be broadcast on the UK's BBC2. And along the same lines - apparently there is also a "Law & Order: UK" hands across the water spin-off - the first US drama television series to be adapted for British television.

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